The present study investigates the role of articulatory and perceptual factors in the change from pre- to post-aspiration in two varieties of Andalusian Spanish. In an acoustic study, the influence of stop type, speaker age, and variety on the production of pre- and post-aspiration was analyzed in isolated words produced by 24 speakers of a Western and 24 of an Eastern variety, both divided into two age groups. The results confirmed previous findings of a sound change from pre- to post-aspiration in both varieties. Velar stops showed the longest, bilabials the shortest, and dental stops intermediate pre- and post-aspiration durations. The observed universal VOT-pattern was not found for younger Western Andalusian speakers who showed a particularly long VOT in /st/-sequences. A perception experiment with the same subjects as listeners showed that post-aspiration was used as a cue for distinguishing the minimal pair /pata/-/pasta/ by almost all listeners. Production-perception comparisons suggested a relationship between production and perception: subjects who produced long post-aspiration were also more sensitive to this cue. In sum, the results suggest that the sound change has first been actuated in the dental context, possibly due to a higher perceptual prominence of post-aspiration in this context, and that post-aspirated stops in Andalusian Spanish are on their way to being phonologized.
{"title":"On the origin of post-aspirated stops: production and perception of /s/ + voiceless stop sequences in Andalusian Spanish","authors":"Hanna Ruch, S. Peters","doi":"10.5334/LABPHON.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5334/LABPHON.2","url":null,"abstract":"The present study investigates the role of articulatory and perceptual factors in the change from pre- to post-aspiration in two varieties of Andalusian Spanish. In an acoustic study, the influence of stop type, speaker age, and variety on the production of pre- and post-aspiration was analyzed in isolated words produced by 24 speakers of a Western and 24 of an Eastern variety, both divided into two age groups. The results confirmed previous findings of a sound change from pre- to post-aspiration in both varieties. Velar stops showed the longest, bilabials the shortest, and dental stops intermediate pre- and post-aspiration durations. The observed universal VOT-pattern was not found for younger Western Andalusian speakers who showed a particularly long VOT in /st/-sequences. A perception experiment with the same subjects as listeners showed that post-aspiration was used as a cue for distinguishing the minimal pair /pata/-/pasta/ by almost all listeners. Production-perception comparisons suggested a relationship between production and perception: subjects who produced long post-aspiration were also more sensitive to this cue. In sum, the results suggest that the sound change has first been actuated in the dental context, possibly due to a higher perceptual prominence of post-aspiration in this context, and that post-aspirated stops in Andalusian Spanish are on their way to being phonologized.","PeriodicalId":45128,"journal":{"name":"Laboratory Phonology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2016-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70691200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Word-final consonants in Spanish are commonly assumed to undergo resyllabification across a word boundary before a following vowel, e.g., /los#otros/ 'the others' is realised as [lo.so.tros]. However, in many dialects of Spanish, word-final pre-vocalic consonants (‘derived onsets’) pattern phonologically with canonical codas and distinctly from canonical onsets. This property of derived onsets has been the subject of much interest in the phonological literature, and has led some linguists to question whether resyllabification indeed applies in all Spanish dialects. In this paper, we evaluate evidence for resyllabification based on acoustic data from 11 speakers of Peninsular Spanish. The results show that word-final pre-vocalic /s/ has increased duration compared to coda /s/, but at the same time, it is shorter compared to word-initial or word-medial pre-vocalic /s/. This result challenges an analysis where derived onsets become phonologically indistinguishable from canonical onsets. We consider an alternative in the form of partial resyllabification, and we further discuss the role of the syllable as a relevant unit in explaining /s/-sandhi in Spanish.
在西班牙语中,词尾辅音通常被认为在后面的元音出现之前要经历跨词边界的重音节化,例如,/los#otros/ 'the others'被理解为[lo.so.tros]。然而,在西班牙语的许多方言中,词尾前辅音(“派生起音”)在音系上具有规范尾音,并且与规范起音明显不同。派生起音的这一特性一直是音韵学文献中非常感兴趣的主题,并导致一些语言学家质疑重新音节化是否确实适用于所有西班牙方言。在本文中,我们基于11个半岛西班牙语使用者的声学数据评估了重音节化的证据。结果表明:尾音/s/比尾音/s/持续时间长,但比首音/s/短。这一结果挑战了一种分析,其中衍生起音在语音上与规范起音难以区分。我们考虑了部分重读音节的替代形式,并进一步讨论了音节作为解释西班牙语中/s/-变调的相关单位的作用。
{"title":"Resyllabification Reconsidered: On the Durational Properties of Word-Final /s/ in Spanish","authors":"Patrycja Strycharczuk, Martin Kohlberger","doi":"10.5334/LABPHON.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5334/LABPHON.5","url":null,"abstract":"Word-final consonants in Spanish are commonly assumed to undergo resyllabification across a word boundary before a following vowel, e.g., /los#otros/ 'the others' is realised as [lo.so.tros]. However, in many dialects of Spanish, word-final pre-vocalic consonants (‘derived onsets’) pattern phonologically with canonical codas and distinctly from canonical onsets. This property of derived onsets has been the subject of much interest in the phonological literature, and has led some linguists to question whether resyllabification indeed applies in all Spanish dialects. In this paper, we evaluate evidence for resyllabification based on acoustic data from 11 speakers of Peninsular Spanish. The results show that word-final pre-vocalic /s/ has increased duration compared to coda /s/, but at the same time, it is shorter compared to word-initial or word-medial pre-vocalic /s/. This result challenges an analysis where derived onsets become phonologically indistinguishable from canonical onsets. We consider an alternative in the form of partial resyllabification, and we further discuss the role of the syllable as a relevant unit in explaining /s/-sandhi in Spanish.","PeriodicalId":45128,"journal":{"name":"Laboratory Phonology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2016-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70691735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2016-01-01Epub Date: 2016-08-09DOI: 10.5334/labphon.39
Peter Richtsmeier
Word-types represent the primary form of data for many models of phonological learning, and they often predict performance in psycholinguistic tasks. Word-types are often tacitly defined as phonologically unique words. Yet, an explicit test of this definition is lacking, and natural language patterning suggests that word meaning could also act as a cue to word-type status. This possibility was tested in a statistical phonotactic learning experiment in which phonological and semantic properties of word-types varied. During familiarization, the learning targets-word-medial consonant sequences-were instantiated either by four related word-types or by just one word-type (the experimental frequency factor). The expectation was that more word-types would lead participants to generalize the target sequences. Regarding semantic cues, related word-types were either associated with different referents or all with a single referent. Regarding phonological cues, related word-types differed from each other by one, two, or more phonemes. At test, participants rated novel wordforms for their similarity to the familiarization words. When participants heard four related word-types, they gave higher ratings to test words with the same consonant sequences, irrespective of the phonological and semantic manipulations. The results support the existing phonological definition of word-types.
{"title":"Phonological and Semantic Cues to Learning from Word-Types.","authors":"Peter Richtsmeier","doi":"10.5334/labphon.39","DOIUrl":"10.5334/labphon.39","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Word-types represent the primary form of data for many models of phonological learning, and they often predict performance in psycholinguistic tasks. Word-types are often tacitly defined as phonologically unique words. Yet, an explicit test of this definition is lacking, and natural language patterning suggests that word meaning could also act as a cue to word-type status. This possibility was tested in a statistical phonotactic learning experiment in which phonological and semantic properties of word-types varied. During familiarization, the learning targets-word-medial consonant sequences-were instantiated either by four related word-types or by just one word-type (the experimental frequency factor). The expectation was that more word-types would lead participants to generalize the target sequences. Regarding semantic cues, related word-types were either associated with different referents or all with a single referent. Regarding phonological cues, related word-types differed from each other by one, two, or more phonemes. At test, participants rated novel wordforms for their similarity to the familiarization words. When participants heard four related word-types, they gave higher ratings to test words with the same consonant sequences, irrespective of the phonological and semantic manipulations. The results support the existing phonological definition of word-types.</p>","PeriodicalId":45128,"journal":{"name":"Laboratory Phonology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5703426/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"35296201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Mazuka, Yosuke Igarashi, Andrew Martin, Akira Utsugi
Abstract Theoretical frameworks of phonology are built largely on the basis of idealized speech, typically recorded in a laboratory under static conditions. Natural speech, in contrast, occurs in a variety of communicative contexts where speakers and hearers dynamically adjust their speech to fit their needs. The present paper demonstrates that phonologically informed analysis of specialized speech registers, such as infant-directed speech, can reveal specific ways segmental and supra-segmental aspects of phonology are modulated dynamically to accommodate the specific communicative needs of speakers and hearers. Data for the analyses come from a corpus of Japanese mothers’ spontaneous speech directed to their infant child (infant-directed speech, IDS) and an adult (adult-directed speech, ADS), as well as read speech (RS). The speech samples in the corpus are annotated with segmental, morphological, and intonational information. We will show that the way intonation is exaggerated in Japanese IDS reflects the intonational structure of Japanese, which is different from that of English. We will also demonstrate that rules of phonological grammar, such as devoicing of high vowels and non-high vowels in Japanese, can be differently affected by the needs of the speaker to accommodate the specific characteristics of the listener.
{"title":"Infant-directed speech as a window into the dynamic nature of phonology","authors":"R. Mazuka, Yosuke Igarashi, Andrew Martin, Akira Utsugi","doi":"10.1515/lp-2015-0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/lp-2015-0009","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Theoretical frameworks of phonology are built largely on the basis of idealized speech, typically recorded in a laboratory under static conditions. Natural speech, in contrast, occurs in a variety of communicative contexts where speakers and hearers dynamically adjust their speech to fit their needs. The present paper demonstrates that phonologically informed analysis of specialized speech registers, such as infant-directed speech, can reveal specific ways segmental and supra-segmental aspects of phonology are modulated dynamically to accommodate the specific communicative needs of speakers and hearers. Data for the analyses come from a corpus of Japanese mothers’ spontaneous speech directed to their infant child (infant-directed speech, IDS) and an adult (adult-directed speech, ADS), as well as read speech (RS). The speech samples in the corpus are annotated with segmental, morphological, and intonational information. We will show that the way intonation is exaggerated in Japanese IDS reflects the intonational structure of Japanese, which is different from that of English. We will also demonstrate that rules of phonological grammar, such as devoicing of high vowels and non-high vowels in Japanese, can be differently affected by the needs of the speaker to accommodate the specific characteristics of the listener.","PeriodicalId":45128,"journal":{"name":"Laboratory Phonology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2015-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/lp-2015-0009","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67024999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Our study presents the initial results of an analysis of North Frisian intonation, based on a spontaneous interview corpus of Fering, the dialect of the island of Föhr off the west coast of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The corpus was recorded more than 50 years ago during fieldwork for language documentation and conservation purposes. We selected a small part of this corpus – interviews of 10 elderly speakers – and conducted multiparametric F0 and duration measurements, focusing on nuclear rising-falling pitch accent patterns. We found strong evidence for a phonological pitch-accent distinction that relies on the difference between a pointed and a plateau-shaped F0 peak. We suggest that the two pitch accents be represented as L+H* and H*+L, and we discuss our findings with regard to possible communicative functions, implications for intonational typology, and the trade-off between F0 range and F0 peak extension in conveying pitch height.
{"title":"Pointed and plateau-shaped pitch accents in North Frisian","authors":"O. Niebuhr, J. Hoekstra","doi":"10.1515/lp-2015-0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/lp-2015-0013","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Our study presents the initial results of an analysis of North Frisian intonation, based on a spontaneous interview corpus of Fering, the dialect of the island of Föhr off the west coast of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The corpus was recorded more than 50 years ago during fieldwork for language documentation and conservation purposes. We selected a small part of this corpus – interviews of 10 elderly speakers – and conducted multiparametric F0 and duration measurements, focusing on nuclear rising-falling pitch accent patterns. We found strong evidence for a phonological pitch-accent distinction that relies on the difference between a pointed and a plateau-shaped F0 peak. We suggest that the two pitch accents be represented as L+H* and H*+L, and we discuss our findings with regard to possible communicative functions, implications for intonational typology, and the trade-off between F0 range and F0 peak extension in conveying pitch height.","PeriodicalId":45128,"journal":{"name":"Laboratory Phonology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2015-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/lp-2015-0013","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67025048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This paper presents an apparent-time study of the vowel length contrast merger in Seoul Korean based on duration measurements of over 370,000 vowels in word-initial syllables in a read-speech corpus. The effects of word frequency on vowel duration and the lexical diffusion of long-vowel shortening are also examined. The findings confirm the observation made in the previous literature that the vowel length contrast is on its way out in the language, and that this sound change is nearing completion. We also find a significant effect of frequency on long-vowel duration: other things being equal, these vowels are shorter in high-frequency words than in low-frequency words. The rate of change does not differ significantly depending on the frequency of words apart from the high-frequency words reaching the endpoint of change and bottoming out in the change earlier than mid- and low-frequency words. The observed frequency effect is compatible with a model in which the frequency effect on duration comes from on-line factors that affect phonetic implementation of speech sounds, along with an across-the-board lenition bias that drives the sound change, not from stored tokens of word-specific variants.
{"title":"Frequency effects on the vowel length contrast merger in Seoul Korean","authors":"Yoonjung Kang, Taejin Yoon, Sungwoo Han","doi":"10.1515/lp-2015-0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/lp-2015-0014","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper presents an apparent-time study of the vowel length contrast merger in Seoul Korean based on duration measurements of over 370,000 vowels in word-initial syllables in a read-speech corpus. The effects of word frequency on vowel duration and the lexical diffusion of long-vowel shortening are also examined. The findings confirm the observation made in the previous literature that the vowel length contrast is on its way out in the language, and that this sound change is nearing completion. We also find a significant effect of frequency on long-vowel duration: other things being equal, these vowels are shorter in high-frequency words than in low-frequency words. The rate of change does not differ significantly depending on the frequency of words apart from the high-frequency words reaching the endpoint of change and bottoming out in the change earlier than mid- and low-frequency words. The observed frequency effect is compatible with a model in which the frequency effect on duration comes from on-line factors that affect phonetic implementation of speech sounds, along with an across-the-board lenition bias that drives the sound change, not from stored tokens of word-specific variants.","PeriodicalId":45128,"journal":{"name":"Laboratory Phonology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2015-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/lp-2015-0014","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67025049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Hasegawa-Johnson, J. Cole, P. Jyothi, L. Varshney
Abstract Transcribers make mistakes. Workers recruited in a crowdsourcing marketplace, because of their varying levels of commitment and education, make more mistakes than workers in a controlled laboratory setting. Methods for compensating transcriber mistakes are desirable because, with such methods available, crowdsourcing has the potential to significantly increase the scale of experiments in laboratory phonology. This paper provides a brief tutorial on statistical learning theory, introducing the relationship between dataset size and estimation error, then presents a theoretical description and preliminary results for two new methods that control labeler error in laboratory phonology experiments. First, we discuss the method of crowdsourcing over error-correcting codes. In the error-correcting-code method, each difficult labeling task is first factored, by the experimenter, into the product of several easy labeling tasks (typically binary). Factoring increases the total number of tasks, nevertheless it results in faster completion and higher accuracy, because workers unable to perform the difficult task may be able to meaningfully contribute to the solution of each easy task. Second, we discuss the use of explicit mathematical models of the errors made by a worker in the crowd. In particular, we introduce the method of mismatched crowdsourcing, in which workers transcribe a language they do not understand, and an explicit mathematical model of second-language phoneme perception is used to learn and then compensate their transcription errors. Though introduced as technologies that increase the scale of phonology experiments, both methods have implications beyond increased scale. The method of easy questions permits us to probe the perception, by untrained listeners, of complicated phonological models; examples are provided from the prosody of English and Hindi. The method of mismatched crowdsourcing permits us to probe, in more detail than ever before, the perception of phonetic categories by listeners with a different phonological system.
{"title":"Models of dataset size, question design, and cross-language speech perception for speech crowdsourcing applications","authors":"M. Hasegawa-Johnson, J. Cole, P. Jyothi, L. Varshney","doi":"10.1515/lp-2015-0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/lp-2015-0012","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Transcribers make mistakes. Workers recruited in a crowdsourcing marketplace, because of their varying levels of commitment and education, make more mistakes than workers in a controlled laboratory setting. Methods for compensating transcriber mistakes are desirable because, with such methods available, crowdsourcing has the potential to significantly increase the scale of experiments in laboratory phonology. This paper provides a brief tutorial on statistical learning theory, introducing the relationship between dataset size and estimation error, then presents a theoretical description and preliminary results for two new methods that control labeler error in laboratory phonology experiments. First, we discuss the method of crowdsourcing over error-correcting codes. In the error-correcting-code method, each difficult labeling task is first factored, by the experimenter, into the product of several easy labeling tasks (typically binary). Factoring increases the total number of tasks, nevertheless it results in faster completion and higher accuracy, because workers unable to perform the difficult task may be able to meaningfully contribute to the solution of each easy task. Second, we discuss the use of explicit mathematical models of the errors made by a worker in the crowd. In particular, we introduce the method of mismatched crowdsourcing, in which workers transcribe a language they do not understand, and an explicit mathematical model of second-language phoneme perception is used to learn and then compensate their transcription errors. Though introduced as technologies that increase the scale of phonology experiments, both methods have implications beyond increased scale. The method of easy questions permits us to probe the perception, by untrained listeners, of complicated phonological models; examples are provided from the prosody of English and Hindi. The method of mismatched crowdsourcing permits us to probe, in more detail than ever before, the perception of phonetic categories by listeners with a different phonological system.","PeriodicalId":45128,"journal":{"name":"Laboratory Phonology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2015-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/lp-2015-0012","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67025046","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Experimental data on final devoicing in languages such as German and Russian usually show that speakers produce incompletely neutralized acoustic differences between words ending in phonologically voiced versus voiceless obstruents (e.g., /kod/ ‘code’ vs. /kot/ ‘cat’ in Russian) and that listeners can use these differences to identify the underlying specification of final consonants at an above-chance level. The current study examines how the seemingly successful perceptual identification of voicing varies across stimulus items recorded in reading vs. non-reading procedures and with and without full minimal pairs present in the experimental list. Results of a series of identification tasks reveal that Russian listeners’ identification responses are more in line with underlying voicing for the stimuli recorded during word-reading and with minimal pairs included among the experimental items. This shows that voicing judgments are strongly influenced by the acoustic differences produced when speakers encounter orthographic forms or lexical competition. At the same time, perceptual neutralization is also not complete for the items recorded without such exposure, which indicates that listeners’ ability to recover underlying voicing is not limited to the production contexts involving written forms or minimal pairs.
{"title":"Perception of incompletely neutralized voicing cues in word-final obstruents: The role of differences in production context","authors":"V. Kharlamov","doi":"10.1515/lp-2015-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/lp-2015-0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Experimental data on final devoicing in languages such as German and Russian usually show that speakers produce incompletely neutralized acoustic differences between words ending in phonologically voiced versus voiceless obstruents (e.g., /kod/ ‘code’ vs. /kot/ ‘cat’ in Russian) and that listeners can use these differences to identify the underlying specification of final consonants at an above-chance level. The current study examines how the seemingly successful perceptual identification of voicing varies across stimulus items recorded in reading vs. non-reading procedures and with and without full minimal pairs present in the experimental list. Results of a series of identification tasks reveal that Russian listeners’ identification responses are more in line with underlying voicing for the stimuli recorded during word-reading and with minimal pairs included among the experimental items. This shows that voicing judgments are strongly influenced by the acoustic differences produced when speakers encounter orthographic forms or lexical competition. At the same time, perceptual neutralization is also not complete for the items recorded without such exposure, which indicates that listeners’ ability to recover underlying voicing is not limited to the production contexts involving written forms or minimal pairs.","PeriodicalId":45128,"journal":{"name":"Laboratory Phonology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2015-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/lp-2015-0005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67024989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
N. Warner, Dan Brenner, Jessamyn Schertz, A. Carnie, Muriel Fisher, Michael Hammond
Abstract Scottish Gaelic is sometimes described as having nasalized fricatives (/ṽ/ distinctively, and [f̃, x̃, h̃], etc. through assimilation). However, there are claims that it is not aerodynamically possible to open the velum for nasalization while maintaining frication noise. We present aerodynamic data from 14 native Scottish Gaelic speakers to determine how the posited nasalized fricatives in this language are realized. Most tokens demonstrate loss of nasalization, but nasalization does occur in some contexts without aerodynamic conflict, e.g., nasalization with the consonant realized as an approximant, nasalization of [h̃], nasalization on the preceding vowel, or sequential frication and nasalization. Furthermore, a very few tokens do contain simultaneous nasalization and frication with a trade-off in airflow. We also present perceptual evidence showing that Gaelic listeners can hear this distinction slightly better than chance. Thus, instrumental data from one of the few languages in the world described as having nasalized fricatives confirms that the claimed sounds are not made by producing strong nasalization concurrently with clear frication noise. Furthermore, although speakers most often neutralize the nasalization, when they maintain it, they do so through a variety of phonetic mechanisms, even within a single language.
苏格兰盖尔语有时被描述为有鼻音化的摩擦音(通过同化而明显地/ /,和[f /, x /, h /]等)。然而,有人声称,在保持摩擦噪声的同时,在空气动力学上不可能打开膜片进行鼻化。我们提供了来自14位苏格兰盖尔语母语者的空气动力学数据,以确定该语言中假定的鼻音摩擦音是如何实现的。大多数符号都表现出鼻音化的缺失,但在一些没有空气动力学冲突的情况下,鼻音化确实会发生,例如,将辅音作为近音实现的鼻音化,[h]的鼻音化,前一个元音的鼻音化,或连续的摩擦和鼻音化。此外,很少的代币确实包含同时的鼻化和摩擦,并在气流中进行权衡。我们还提供了感知证据,表明盖尔语听众可以比偶然更好地听到这种区别。因此,来自世界上少数几种被描述为有鼻音摩擦音的语言之一的仪器数据证实,所声称的声音不是通过同时产生强烈的鼻音和明显的摩擦音而发出的。此外,尽管说话者通常会消除鼻音化,但当他们保持鼻音化时,他们会通过各种语音机制来做到这一点,甚至在同一种语言中也是如此。
{"title":"The aerodynamic puzzle of nasalized fricatives: Aerodynamic and perceptual evidence from Scottish Gaelic","authors":"N. Warner, Dan Brenner, Jessamyn Schertz, A. Carnie, Muriel Fisher, Michael Hammond","doi":"10.1515/lp-2015-0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/lp-2015-0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Scottish Gaelic is sometimes described as having nasalized fricatives (/ṽ/ distinctively, and [f̃, x̃, h̃], etc. through assimilation). However, there are claims that it is not aerodynamically possible to open the velum for nasalization while maintaining frication noise. We present aerodynamic data from 14 native Scottish Gaelic speakers to determine how the posited nasalized fricatives in this language are realized. Most tokens demonstrate loss of nasalization, but nasalization does occur in some contexts without aerodynamic conflict, e.g., nasalization with the consonant realized as an approximant, nasalization of [h̃], nasalization on the preceding vowel, or sequential frication and nasalization. Furthermore, a very few tokens do contain simultaneous nasalization and frication with a trade-off in airflow. We also present perceptual evidence showing that Gaelic listeners can hear this distinction slightly better than chance. Thus, instrumental data from one of the few languages in the world described as having nasalized fricatives confirms that the claimed sounds are not made by producing strong nasalization concurrently with clear frication noise. Furthermore, although speakers most often neutralize the nasalization, when they maintain it, they do so through a variety of phonetic mechanisms, even within a single language.","PeriodicalId":45128,"journal":{"name":"Laboratory Phonology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2015-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/lp-2015-0007","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67024993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Many languages have been claimed to have phonological patterns that are sensitive to the need to avoid homophony – for example, a rule that is blocked if it would create a surface form that is identical to another word in the language. Such patterns always involve comparisons between words in the same morphological paradigm (e.g., singular and plural forms with the same stem). The lone exception to this generalization is Ichimura (2006), who argues that a nasal contraction pattern in Japanese is blocked by potential homophony between verbs with different stems. We present experimental evidence that homophony avoidance is not part of the correct synchronic description of the environment in which this pattern applies; rather, nasal contraction does not productively delete stem-final vowels. However, homophony avoidance does appear to affect the probability with which contraction applies. We conclude that homophony avoidance affects phonological behavior, but that absolute homophony-related blocking is restricted to morphological paradigms.
{"title":"Categorical and gradient homophony avoidance: Evidence from Japanese","authors":"A. Kaplan, Y. Muratani","doi":"10.1515/lp-2015-0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/lp-2015-0006","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Many languages have been claimed to have phonological patterns that are sensitive to the need to avoid homophony – for example, a rule that is blocked if it would create a surface form that is identical to another word in the language. Such patterns always involve comparisons between words in the same morphological paradigm (e.g., singular and plural forms with the same stem). The lone exception to this generalization is Ichimura (2006), who argues that a nasal contraction pattern in Japanese is blocked by potential homophony between verbs with different stems. We present experimental evidence that homophony avoidance is not part of the correct synchronic description of the environment in which this pattern applies; rather, nasal contraction does not productively delete stem-final vowels. However, homophony avoidance does appear to affect the probability with which contraction applies. We conclude that homophony avoidance affects phonological behavior, but that absolute homophony-related blocking is restricted to morphological paradigms.","PeriodicalId":45128,"journal":{"name":"Laboratory Phonology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2015-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/lp-2015-0006","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67024991","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}